In the art of flexographic printing, a plate is carried on a rotating cylinder. The plate carries a print medium that is then applied to a surface. During the printing process, certain debris, such as dust, paper fibers and other residue, is unavoidably deposited onto the plate. This type of debris can result in poor print quality and needs to be removed from the plate to maintain optimum print quality. It is also desirable to remove such debris without having to shut down the printing press because doing so adversely impacts productivity. That is, it is known in the prior art that shutting down the press to manually wipe debris from the printing plate accomplishes the intended purpose, but at the expense of lowering print production. Other methods are known in the art that use a more mechanized process for cleaning a printing plate, but do so by degrading the surface of the printing plate by repeated cleanings and imprecise placement of a cleaning device relative to the printing plate. These mechanized processes of the prior art also result in a degradation of print quality due to the degradation of the surface of the printing plate. A “dry” system is preferred in that it minimizes color deviation in the ink and produces no waste water, which water then needs to be properly disposed of.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide An apparatus, assembly and method for dry cleaning of a flexographic printing plate, the plate being carried on a plate cylinder, as the plate rotates on a print cylinder and without stopping the printing press whereby minimal degradation of the printing plate surface is realized. It is another object to provide such an apparatus, assembly and method whereby the apparatus is adjustable in several axes relative to the rotating plate so as to optimize cleaning. It is still another object to provide such an apparatus, assembly and method whereby the apparatus and assembly can be easily removed from the printing press for service and maintenance when necessary. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus, assembly and method that incorporates a number of added performance characteristics that are intended to optimize cleaning capabilities when the apparatus, assembly and method is used as intended.